In the prior art, optical fibre fusion connectors that connect to the ends of optical cables via fusion splicing of optical fibre generally comprise an internal shell, an external shell, an inserted core component, a spring, a spring protector, optical cable securing components, a fusion splice protective sleeve, a strain relief boot and a dust cap. The inserted core component includes an inserted core and a section of pre-installed optical fibre retained within the inserted core. This section of pre-installed optical fibre is for fusion splicing with the incoming optical fibre of the optical cable.
In the prior art, when assembling optical fibre connectors on-site, it is necessary to install the dust cap, inserted core component, spring and spring retainer within the internal shell one-by-one, then to fusion splice the pre-installed optical fibre and the incoming optical fibre of the optical cable together. The fusion splice protective sleeve is then connected with the rear end of the internal shell and the buffer sleeve (this being a component part of the optical cable) of the incoming optical fibre, thus ensuring that the fusion splice between the pre-installed optical fibre and the incoming optical fibre is protected within the protective sleeve. Then the optical cable securing component is installed on the internal shell, with the optical cable Kevlar fibre being secured to the optical cable securing component. Finally, the strain relief boot is installed over the optical cable securing component and the internal shell installed within the external shell.
In the prior art, the optical cable securing component generally includes a relatively long extension tube and a heat shrink tubing/a crimping sleeve. The front end of the extension tube connects to the rear end of the internal shell, and the fusion splice protective sleeve is contained within the extension tube. The optical cable Kevlar fibre is secured to the rear end of the extension tube by heat shrink tubing/a crimping sleeve.
The aforesaid optical fibre connector of the prior art includes a relatively large number of independent components, and has a very complex structure, making it unsuited to rapid on-site installation of optical fibre connectors, for such on-site assembly of optical fibre connectors is very time consuming.
Moreover, in the prior art, the need to use fairly long extension tubes results in excessively long optical fibre connectors and strain relief boots that are too short, which can result in optical cables in optical fibre connectors being damaged easily when subjected to lateral strain. In other words, it reduces the capacity of optical cables to withstand lateral loads.
Apart from this, in the prior art, it is also necessary to use specialised crimping tools to crimp crimping sleeves or strain relief boots onto the rear end of the extension tube, increasing the difficulty of on-site assembly of optical fibre connectors.